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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Long live Swinewarts!!!

Alright so yesterday, we threw the most amazing birthday party that ever has been or ever will be. Let me give you a brief run down so you can all be jealous jealous jealous!!!

So it all began with our amazing owl invitations. We blew up balloons and taped ears and feet to them and drew an owl face and wings on them. Then we got fishing wire and taped them to people's porches, rang the door bell, and ran. Of course, Aimee and I were completely dressed up so as to be unrecognizable if anyone actually saw us. It was really fun.

Then Emily and I spent the last week making preparations. We planned some pretty amazing stuff. My dad built an amazing Quidditch pitch. And we gathered up some costumes.

The party started off badly. The kids didn't show up on time so we did some practice Quidditch and I was starting to freak because we'd had it planned to the minute. Finally we decided to just start. We took the kids inside and we helped them pick out a wand. We had gathered, cut, and sanded sticks into wands. My mom, who was playing the French witch assistant headmistress of Swinewarts, Eleanore La Fee, helped them pick wands to try. They took turns trying wands. On the right wand, suddenly there was a magical sound. After all the wand chooses the wizard.

Then we had them all sit down to be sorted. But this was a special year at Swinewarts for this was the year of the Biwizard Tournament. So we did the Goblet of Fire instead of the sorting hat. I lit the end of a shishkaboob thingy and then lit the goblet which was a brass amphora thing with tin foil stretched across the top and alcohol poured on top of that. It burst into beautiful big flames. Then we put the names on another skewer and passed them through the flames. They caught flame for a few seconds but didn't burn. (It's one of my new favorite magic tricks...) Then I read out which was in which class.

One group was Errius headed by the bold Australian Professor Bruce Butterbutt (he doesn't care much for formality and he really doesn't care for the name Butterbutt...so you can call him Bruce) played by my dear sister Emily.

The other group was Bolshevniki headed by...you guessed it...ME! I was playing potions professor, Zababa Yaga, the granddaughter of the famous Baba Yaga (is not true zat she eat so many people...I sink she only eat maybe ten peoples.)

Then we went to the classes. Emily and I taught Care of Magical creatures teaching them about magical birds and making origami owls. Erin, the eccentric Professor Trilany, taught Divination reading doom and ice cream in everyone's futures. My dad, headmaster Stanley Snodgrass, taught Herbology where they planted magic corn and jelly beans. Just before Quidditch, a crop of corndogs popped up right where they had planted the corn and we ate them while mixing up some exciting potions made of Veritasirum, Dragon's Blood, Love potion, Polyjuice Potion, Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover, Felix Felisis, etc. Then we played Quidditch. My team won by catching the Snitch. Then we went back to classes with Emily teaching ancient aboriginal runes. I taught my potions class in which we mixed Yozhik Juice (purple cabbage juice) with asphodel (laundry detergent) which turned bright green. Then we added juice of the erumpent horn (vinegar) and it turned pink. Then we added powdered Billywig Stingers (baking soda) and it turned blue and foamed. It was pretty cool. My mom taught Defense Against the Dark Arts where they learned how to defend from a dementor.

Then we had cake and ice cream and then the tournament began. First they got an egg. Strangely enough, they didn't figure out to crack it open very quickly. But when they did, there was a note written in code which they had to crake just as they had the egg. It lead them to the next challenge which for my team was getting a hippogriff feather. Fortunely, they had been informed that hippogriffs liked to nest under the bridge. There they found feathers and cds hung from underneath the bridge. The CD was a prophecy of where they needed to go next. My group was headed to the Quidditch pitch where they found three riddles on top of boxes. They said,

" The beginning of eternity,

The end of time and space

The beginning of every end

And the end of every place.

I am the beginning of sorrow, and then end of sickness. You cannot express happiness without me, yet I am in the midst of crosses. I am always in risk, yet never in danger. You may find me in the sun, but I am never out of darkness.

I dwell in bitterness, and accompany bliss. I evince blackness but never the light. I am found in goblets but never in a glass. I make oil boil."

Under the box was a pair of clippers and a note from Bertie Botts. We went to the bean plant where there were pods of fruit leather with jelly beans inside. Then we got a letter that sent us into the forbidden forest where we were going to decode runes. The runes went to different places where they had to make the potions to collect the foam and report back. Of course through out this whole affair, dementors kept appearing and had to be scared away. It was quite scary towards the end as it was dark and we were running through the woods.

We mixed a last few potions, downing them with toasts to Swinewarts, the teachers, and muggles before everyone went home. It was awesome.